4.3.1 Architecture, decor, and dress code
Physical arrangements such as architecture, decor, and dress code are found to be used by SafeGear's founder as powerful cultural clues. More precisely, Rixen attempts to embody his values and his philosophy in a visible form. In the following, the company's physical arrangements are presented and analyzed.
First, the office is located in a co-working space in the center of the historic neighborhood of Gracia, in the heart of Barcelona. Gracia is a community characterized by its original Spanish flair and is home to a variety of small and unique businesses including restaurants, bars, and shops.
The co-working sunlit space is shared with three other start-ups and an architecture firm, and conveys the impression of a very dynamic and energetic environment. From an architectural point of view, the office features an open space area with desks where employees sit all together at their computers, and a small office for the founder. The space also offers a kitchen, an eating room and several meeting rooms that can be booked if necessary. Additionally, it overlooks a big terrace. The office location in the co-working space and its architecture help to communicate Rixen’s main values.
Due to its uniqueness, its entrepreneurial vibe, and its variety of different businesses, the co-working space reflects the company's entrepreneurial spirit and stresses its focus on simplicity and professionalism at the same time. Furthermore, the open space layout enhances values such as cooperation, importance of teamwork, and communication.
However, the founder's private office can be seen as a kind of status symbol,
highlighting the need for Rixen to work without interruption, since he also spends a lot of time on the phone.
The office decor is recognized by the founder to be another important aspect of the company' s culture. The co-working space is characterized by its industrial design including plain, white walls. The decor is very minimalistic as well and all companies are allowed to furnish and decorate their spaces within certain limits. Related to this, the founder states, "it's a co-working space and we have to take care of our space to make it a nice place where to be [...]It is important to give employees a place where they can work productively and where they feel inspired to do their best "(F). In order to do so, Rixen decorated it with plants and colorful flowers. Additionally, he furnished the terrace with beach chairs, a sun umbrella, and workout equipment that can be used during the breaks or after work. This kind of decor symbolizes the importance that the founder places on his employees, on relationships and communication. Additionally, it emphasizes the company's laid-back style and informality.
SafeGear also stresses this laid-back attitude by not requiring any formal dress code: "we don't have a dress code. We are informal. Since we don't have customers coming to our office, everyone can wear whatever he or she wants and is comfortable with" (F). The casual attire also highlights the importance of employees' individuality.
To sum up, architecture, decor, and dress code are important cultural expressions for the company since they reflect the founder's values of initiative, collaboration, and fun.
4.3.2 Routines and social activities
SafeGear's founder acknowledges that embedding culture in people practices and daily interactions is crucial. This is why certain routines and social activities have been developed and encouraged by Rixen.
Firstly, weekly meetings are currently held every Monday. Related to this, the founder explains, "now we have a weekly meeting every Monday where we sit down all together and talk about how to approach things and problems. I also make sure that we indirectly talk about our values" (F). Meetings are particularly important as they function as a two-way communication system where employees' input and ideas are heard and the personnel is involved in setting goals and making decisions. Therefore,
open communication and cooperation are highlighted which is particularly relevant for SafeGear as the company is based on a balance of team-playing and individual responsibility with everyone’s role in the group seen as essential. Hence, the idea of giving space to everyone in the meetings is intended to make all employees feel valued.
Additionally, meetings are a good setting for the founder to highlight those behaviors that he considers to be necessary to the company's success such as taking initiative and
"getting things done" (F). In order to emphasize daily and weekly goals as well as to keep everyone on track, Rixen has introduced a white board on which everyone writes his or her daily or weekly goals. The board functions as a visible reminder of current goals that need to be achieved. In relation to this, the founder depicts that, "the board is especially useful during the meetings. We can fill it out together and talk about it. So, it's a nice way to have the conversation starting and going" (F). The board is also intended to be an element of "fun", in fact, Rixen encourages his employees to write down a new Spanish word every morning, "we write the Spanish word of the day. It's a fun thing because Ricardo is the only native Spanish speaker" (F).
Other routines that have been developed are daily lunch and coffee breaks.
During lunch breaks employees usually eat together in the eating room available in the co-working space. This way, they get to know each other on a more personal level which is considered to benefit the environment in the office and improve the staff's collaboration. However, due to his busy schedule, Rixen often cannot join his staff which prevents bringing the whole team together.
Coffee breaks, instead, are an opportunity for both founder and employees to meet on common ground and talk informally about their work or private topics, "the idea behind is to all together have a break for like 15 minutes twice a day"(F). This strongly encourages informality, dialogue, and status equality. Furthermore, during coffee breaks, which usually take place on the terrace, Rixen encourages the use of work-out equipment. Related to this, he states, "when we take the breaks we usually talk but we also like to move. You know, it is healthy for you, it gives you energy, it clears your mind. It is good for all of us. We have fun with it" (F). Hence, coffee breaks have been installed by the founder to make the workday more pleasant, which should translate into higher satisfaction, motivation, and productivity.
Additional to daily office routines, Rixen is trying to improve the employee engagement through after work social activities. He believes that employees are happier and more satisfied if they spend time together in informal settings. This is why Rixen started to organize bar meetings on Fridays and Spanish classes on Tuesdays. The latter take place at the office where a teacher is coming to every week, however, they are entirely voluntary. As Rixen explains, "it is about learning a bit of Spanish and having fun at the same time"(F).Thus, the aim is to interact with each other in an informal environment and to have fun. Moreover, participation in social activities is supposed to increase the feeling of belonging to a community at SafeGear. While explaining the purpose of social activities Rixen states that "it is really worth to spend time and a couple of hundred Euros if that gives us satisfaction and keeps people motivated.[...] It is a learning process but it is working well" (F). Additionally, Rixen points out benefits that social activities bring to the team, "I think that [social activities] are fun, they create better connections and they are better for the group also. For instance, we have had 3 rounds of interns already and this round is the round where interns get along the best. I think we created now a really good and dynamic group" (F).
Daily routines and social activities have also been developed and are encouraged in the company in order to improve and highlight the importance of the next cultural practice, teamwork.
4.3.3 Teamwork: many backgrounds, one team
In a young start-up such as SafeGaer, collaboration and coordination are essential. In order to create a work culture that fosters and values cooperation, Rixen emphasizes the importance of teamwork, "at SafeGear it is all about teamwork, it is extremely important, it is basically what we do" (F).
Specifically, Rixen considers teamwork to be crucial for the company's results since it helps employees in handling frequent changes in goals, workloads that could be too much for an individual, and the typical start-up stress of uncertainty7. Additionally, teamwork is valuable since it can be used by employees to complement each others'
7 As noted by Shattè, 2015, and mentioned in p.2 of the thesis.
strengths and weaknesses. For these reasons, according to the founder, teamwork increases the staff's engagement and performance.
However, SafeGear's employees come from 6 different countries. Having that many languages, backgrounds, cultures, and ideas, teamwork can be a challenging and difficult thing to achieve. In order to bring people together and ensure coordination and collaboration, SafeGear emphasizes the importance of communication and openness.
Rixen explains that, "there is a lot of coordination needed, that is why we do the meetings and why we talk every morning about what we will be doing" (F). During meetings, the staff is encouraged to act cooperatively and to ask questions without fear of criticism. In addition, previously discussed social activities are perfect occasions for increasing the team bond, which can result in people appreciating one another and working well together.
4.3.4 Value-based selection and orientation practices
The screening process of new members is found to be one of the most important cultural practices since it is used to make sure that values of potential new staff members and SafeGear match. Rixen acknowledges the importance of having employees that fit into the company, notably, due to past experiences of staff turnover.
Related to this, he argues, "we improved the screening process in order to take people that will be happy here. If the screening process is not good you will have people that are not the perfect match and then it's a problem. We have experienced that already"
(F). Therefore, in order to ensure employee commitment and reduce turnover, Rixen started to tailor the recruitment process to promote those values and assumptions that are crucial to build a stable organizational culture. This is the reason why the company currently strives to hire candidates whose values appear to be consistent with those of the founder. In more detail, Rixen emphasizes three qualities that applicants need to have: initiative, attention to detail, and a positive attitude.
First of all, initiative is considered to be essential. Since SafeGear is a small company with only a small number of employees, being enterprising, energetic, and hardworking is of high importance. Related to this, Rixen underlines that, "this is what you need to have when you are part of a small company but it is also part of the excitement if you are that kind of person that likes to take on a lot of responsibility and
is happy with it" (F). Additionally, he points out that when working in start-up such as SafeGear, employees get less support compared to bigger companies. Thus, being assertive and ready to take on initiative and high responsibilities is necessary for the employee's satisfaction and motivation as well as for the company's results. On the contrary, "employees who need support and are not comfortable with taking initiative and responsibility will not be happy and successful in the company" (F).
A high degree of initiative requires great attention to detail. Especially due to the fact that employees have mainly little previous work experience, Rixen highlights the importance of hiring candidates that are motivated, diligent and hardworking, "we cannot have someone that is sloppy and does not pay attention to detail. It is about putting content on our website, blog and social media. It has to be good and professional" (F).
The third quality Rixen expects his employees to have is a positive attitude.
Since a start-up, SafeGear included, usually experiences a lot of ups and downs, it is vital to have positive thinking employees. Rixen states that from his own experience he witnessed how important it is to hire candidates that are excited to face challenges and follow big goals.
In order to find people who match the company's values, the selection process of SafeGear has been improved with every new applicant undergoing several interviews in which his or her personality, motivation, and interests are assessed. Additionally, Rixen introduced a task that the final candidates have to solve in order to show their strengths and weaknesses. Moreover, the founder highlights how the selection process has been further improved, "we really emphasize now what people have to do here and what we expect from them" (F). This has led the company to hire mainly young, well-educated, and ambitious people which, according to Rixen, form a homogeneous team and work well together.
To further steep new employees into the values of the company, the founder started an orientation program which aims particularly at socializing new interns and introducing them to the company's values and behaviors. Since SafeGear offers internships for a period of six months an orientation program is perceived as necessary by the founder.
The program lasts a couple of days starting with a meeting in which Rixen holds a presentation of the company's goals and products. Subsequently, the interns are encouraged to get lunch with the founder and other employees in order to familiarize and break the ice.
The following days are characterized by the content manager introducing the interns to the computer programs being used in the company. Additionally, a checklist of things that new interns should become familiar with has been created and is checked by the content manager. "This process takes a couple of days and the person that is responsible is Francesca, the content manager. She explains how everything works" (F).
To sum up, Rixen improved the company's screening process to select candidates whose values and beliefs match his own. Furthermore, an orientation program has been developed to socialize and further steep new employees into the company's culture.
4.3.5 Performance appraisals and celebration of achievements
Finally, performance appraisals and celebration of achievements are considered important by Rixen and represent another important instrument for influencing SafeGear's culture.
The founder underlines how important it is to recognize and appreciate employees’ efforts and good job performances, "for example, when we have the morning meetings and I see that one of the employees has worked on something and has done a great job, he or she will be presenting what he or she did. That is a way for everybody to learn from what has been done but it's also a way for me to appreciate the work and say 'thank you, great work'"(F). Hence, the spotlight is put on the person that has done the best job. By highlighting good performances Rixen shows recognition and commitment to his employees and, at the same time, stresses his priorities and values by praising those behaviors that he expects to see from his staff. Thus, a good feedback can help employees to learn from their own experiences what the founder values the most.
Additionally, presenting employees' good results to the rest of the staff has another purpose: "I think that it is something rewarding for the person who did the work but is also part of the learning process for everybody else because we also tackle problems and obstacles encountered and the solutions taken" (F).
A straightforward face-to-face "thank you" or "well done" is the simplest way the founder uses to value achievements and to increase his employees' motivation and satisfaction. However, Rixen also demonstrates the importance of celebrating success in another way. In fact, he currently introduced a small bell that can be rung when someone achieves a goal, "it's a nice fun way to appreciate what someone did. Some people might ring the bell themselves, other times, when I see [that someone did a good job] I might be the one telling them 'well you have to ring the bell!" (F).
Acknowledging and celebrating achievement is part of building an effective team and by giving credit Rixen tries to reinforce employees' self-esteem and to highlight values such as open communication and trust.
During the meetings, Rixen also reacts to poor job performances by highlighting things that could have been done better and how to improve them, "I think it's a matter of how you tell people [that you are not happy with their job]. During the Monday meetings [...] usually I tell them 'maybe you can improve here or there' and I give them inputs" (F). Certain behaviors are also discussed face-to-face. For instance, the founder considers punctuality as highly important and expects everyone to be on time. Related to this, he points out, "here we start at 9 o'clock. In Spain many people start later, but this is our routine" (F). Therefore, if employees are not punctual Rixen communicates it to his staff in order to get across his assumption that being punctual is considered important and is expected by everyone in the company.
An additional point to be made is that the recognition of good and bed behavior or performances depends on people's preferences and personalities. The founder recognizes that everyone is different and, thus, takes that into account. Related to this, he points out, "for instance, one of the girls that we have now is very talkative, outgoing and everybody knows it. So, if I have a complaint I can talk about it openly, she is not going to be upset and it's not making anyone uncomfortable" (F).
4.3.6 Sub-conclusion
Taking these findings into consideration, it becomes apparent that SafeGear seems to be on the right way to create a stable organizational culture which is highly influenced by the founder's core values and vision. Particularly, the data analysis enabled the identification of specific cultural practices that Rixen implemented in order
to embed and reinforce his personal values and assumptions in the start-up. Remarkable is that organizational culture is seen as important by the start-up founder and recognized as something that can help cultivate and enhance employee commitment and the feeling of belonging to SafeGear, which can result in high performances and retention of skilled staff.